Iran planning indigenous S-300 missile system: Defense Minister

Iran’s Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi says the Islamic Republic is progressing well in the process of manufacturing an air defense system similar to the Russian S-300.
“We previously announced that manufacturing the system was on the agenda and although this important objective cannot be fulfilled quickly, the manufacturing stages are making good progress,” Vahidi said on Saturday.

Alluding to the latest breakthroughs by Iran’s Defense Ministry, Vahidi said, “We hope to present our missile and naval achievements in the near future.”

In early September, Commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defense Base Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili said that Iran has completed 30 percent of the production of the system, called Bavar (Belief) 373.

Iranian experts have completed the long-range missile system’s threat detection mechanism and manufactured its sensitive parts, Esmaili noted.

He expressed hope that the system will be complete by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 2013) or the next year.

Under a contract signed in 2007, Russia was required to provide Iran with at least five S-300 air defense systems.

Moscow has been refusing to deliver the system to Iran under the pretext that it is covered by the fourth round of the UN Security Council sanctions resolutions against Iran.